Currently, there is a drive towards cleaner renewable energy sources as an alternative to traditional fossil fuels. One type of renewable energy source that has a growing demand is solar cells. Solar cells are generally fabricated from high purity silicon. However, currently the cost to fabricate solar cells is relatively high.
One reason is due to a high cost of the starting raw material, e.g., silicon. In addition, the polycrystalline feedstock has to be grown into a single crystal or slowly solidified into an ingot increasing the cost further. Finally, the boules have to be cut into wafers resulting in an over 30% loss as saw dust. Due to the growing demand of solar cells and increased use of silicon in various applications, the cost of silicon has risen. However, other sources of silicon may be found other than directly from silicon suppliers. For example, other sources of silicon may be found in fluid bed reactors, purified saw dust, broken pieces of silicon, metallurgical grade silicon and the like. The present invention provides a solution to utilizing these other sources of silicon.